Tuesday, December 30, 2008

How to Kill a God: Ink Scrawl Nugget 23

The Context:

Noe (as Noah - he of the biblical ark fame - is called in this book), has a direct line to god — which the god uses at regular intervals to outline his plans and how he expects Noe to execute them. This is one such interaction between Noe (who is a 'fundamentalist' in his faith in his god) and Yahweh, the god, who has been chracterized as in the Old Testament - megalomaniac, cranky, demanding, cantankerous, and a general pain in the you-know-what:

—Behold, I am the Lord your God. You shall worship no usurper gods in My stead.

[. . .]

Noe seeks the source of God's voice and sees, on the pathway before him, an ant: smaller than his thumbnail, shiny black, industrious in its jittery perambulations. Rearing back on four hind legs, the ant cleaves the air with tiny mandibles even as its voice fills Noe's head.

—My duty is to command. Whether you act as I instruct is a function of your own will.

Something isn't quite right about this scene, this God, but Noe finds himself unable to focus on exactly what. He hesitates.

—Do you doubt My power? Shrieks the ant.

—Of course not, Lord, Noe gasps.—I serve you always.

He falls to his knees. In so doing, he inadvertently crushes the Lord God Yahweh beneath his bony kneecap.

—Lord—?

The insect is a broken smear. Noe reflexively brushes the wet crust from his body, then arrests his hand. —God is dead! he wails. —And I have killed Him!